Blue Christmas

Cathy Carlson and her husband Craig Laskowski celebrate Christmas

Here in Hawaii, the local news is filled with coverage of a small plane crash which happened two days ago. Perhaps you heard of it — it made the national news scene because the lone victim who died in the crash of the 9-passenger plane was Loretta Fuddy, the director of Hawaii’s Department of Health. She was the one who was responsible for the release of President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate. But not only that, she was an active parishioner at St. Theresa’s Co-Cathedral, where my husband attends every week. He got to know Loretta because of her work on the Finance Committee of which he is also a member.

Cathy Carlson

The reason that I am bringing this up is that for many, the holidays are not a very happy time, in spite of the fact that carols proclaim “Joy to the world” and “It’s the most wonderful time of the year.” It must be like that for Annie Laskowski, the daughter of BHS’68 grad, Cathy Carlson, who contacted us recently. I certainly remember pretty Cathy as we shared a number of classes — See my post about Kathy Fiscus  for the reason there were so many Cathys and Kathys in the Class of 1968. Cathy has been on our Memorial list for a long time — she died from lung cancer in 1988. Annie said that her mother lived in Burbank her whole life and worked for Pacific Bell telephone company. She married Craig Laskowski in 1969. They had two children, a boy, Ryan, in 1977 and Annie in 1986.

Annie also shared this picture of her mother holding her as a baby.

Cathy Carlson Laskowski with her daughter, Annie.

Annie, we are so happy that you contacted us with news of your mother! We know how hard it must be for you to celebrate the holidays without her, but know that you must be grateful for the years you did have together.

Annie wrote: Thank you for writing about my mother. The holidays are definitely difficult for our family without my mom but reading your piece made me very happy. It is a treat for me to discuss her in a positive light as most of the time, as you can imagine, talking about her is a sad topic. I’m sure she would be thrilled with all of this. She loved her time in high school and if she was still with us, I am sure she would be attending each and every reunion with a huge smile on her face.  

Keep in touch and keep those emails and photos coming.